A Career Turning Point in an Academic Library

When I joined the University Libraries at Washington University in St. Louis in September of 2013, I did not understand the tremendous impact it would have on the trajectory of my career. I came to the library as an HR professional, and I had already worked for many years in nonprofit organizations and state government, in addition to several years in higher education. But it was the first role that provided personal funding for my professional development.

It was not until years later, when, as a doctoral student, I was given a research assignment about the professional standards of librarians and other professionals at WashU Libraries that I understood why. According to the ALA Core Competencies (2023), continuing education, professional growth, and a commitment to lifelong learning are key components of a well-informed library professional.

In addition to the two graduate degrees I obtained while working in an academic library, attending and presenting at conferences helped me navigate the complexities of the library organization and create positive and impactful change. To break down silos and work better across departments, I led several business process improvement projects. One included using technology to process invoices. Instead of being hand-delivered across campus, the documents were scanned and shared through electronic files. We transformed this workflow right before the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving us well-positioned to function effectively when staff were not allowed in buildings. Additionally, we conducted a workforce analysis, which allowed us to identify a multiyear staffing strategy to fill skills gaps and increase capacity in critical areas.

Although I did not hold the librarian credential, as a middle manager who was later promoted to associate university librarian, I considered myself a library professional. I demonstrated respect and appreciation for the work, stayed abreast of growing trends, executed strategic planning and organizational design functions, recruited top talent for critical roles, promoted library services, advocated for professional development resources, and helped to ensure that our spaces were suitable for student learning.

It was a period of significant change for the library. When I arrived, the offices were filled with people who had been there for 30 years, and the business processes were quite archaic. I remember walking into my new office and seeing an old electric typewriter that was used to make new labels for files and books. My boss seemed heartbroken when I told her that I would never use it. In the years that followed, the changing landscape of higher education, advancing technologies, the pandemic, budgetary constraints, staff turnover, and a revolving door of senior leaders contributed disruption and a great deal of dysfunction. Library leaders made strides to advance strategic organizational changes, improve business processes, enhance technology infrastructure, and attract and maintain top talent.

However, although we made progress on some issues near the end of my tenure, I also witnessed what seemed to be a loss of identity and purpose for the library in the academy. For example, under one leader we spent a lot of time defining who we are—our mission, organizational principles, and values. Some institutional leaders reduced the work of the libraries to providing study space and checking out books, instead of seeing them as a partner in ensuring the overall success of students. Nonetheless, the meaningful work that contributes to the research, teaching, and learning outcomes, along with my amazing team and colleagues, kept me in the role, as they do for others (Martin, 2020). The lessons I learned and experiences I gained were invaluable.

In 2024, I left the library to pursue a position as chief of staff and senior associate dean of People and Culture at one of the top business schools in the country. Teamwork, service, governance, strategic planning, and working with a diverse group of passionate and intelligent people prepared me for the position. In my new role, I also have an opportunity to transform and innovate in a team setting and help the school create a people and culture strategy focused on belonging, transparency, empathy, accountability, teamwork, and professional growth.

When I left WashU Libraries, it was not the same organization that I had joined ten years prior. Over the course of a decade, I’d endured the leadership of five university librarians, overseen a major capital project, managed people and positions outside the traditional mold of librarianship, utilized new technologies, implemented new work to meet growing demands, and ceased work on things that were once valued. I facilitated all of this through budget cuts and the challenges of the pandemic while maintaining a commitment to the fundamental values of the profession.

The metamorphosis will continue. The biggest disrupters will be AI, other technology, and ill-prepared leaders. Furthermore, as priorities for higher education institutions shift, academic libraries will need to demonstrate their value and the return on investment for their financial and human capital. I envision future libraries as collaborative learning spaces filled with professionals and laypeople working together to create pathways that allow all of us to learn, research, and teach with confidence that the data are accurate and tools are suitable.

As my own story demonstrates, operating in this dynamic space gives librarians and other information and higher education professionals the opportunity to develop skills that will allow them to access and thrive in roles across knowledge-generating career fields and have an impact beyond the limits put on them by the academy. I believe anyone pursuing a career in higher education should spend time working in a library to deepen their understanding of foundational aspects of teaching, learning and research, cooperative collaboration, and student success.

References:

American Library Association. (2023). ALA’s Core Competencies of Librarianship. https://www.ala.org/sites/default/files/educationcareers/content/2022%20ALA%20Core%20Competences%20of%20Librarianship_FINAL.pdf

Martin, J. (2020). Job Satisfaction of Professional Librarians and Library Staff. Journal of Library Administration, 60(4), 365–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2020.1721941